Frozen assets
The respondent admitted at his criminal trial that he had undeclared income. He was later stopped by Customs officers and his car found to have £15 000 in cash which had traces of morphine. The money was forfeited. The director of the Assets Recovery Agency sought a freezing order under PCA 2002 s 317 in the belief that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that the income was as a result of his or another's criminal conduct.
The respondent argued that the court could only make a freezing order when a cause of action existed. He said that none existed because there was no legal obligation on him to pay the tax on the income as HMRC had not assessed him.
The court said that on the facts there was an existing cause of action in respect of unpaid tax even though it had...
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